Teach for America Leverages Start Co. Resources

(Memphis Daily News) Education reform has been alive and well here in Memphis over the last few years. There have been many great initiatives established to secure dollars and establish programming to move our youth forward. As always, I am thinking of scale, sustainability and innovation to stay relevant.

Teach for America is one effort that has been growing strong since it landed in Memphis in 2006, especially given our struggles with only 4 percent of high school students graduating college ready and 26 percent holding a bachelor’s degree in the metro area, according to Teach for America. Its mission is valiant, “growing the movement of leaders who work to ensure that kids growing up in poverty get an excellent education.”

It has been interesting to see how entrepreneurship is taking root as a means to further Teach for America’s mission. Let’s face it, TFA is a startup. A startup that began in 1989, but nonetheless its model is original, innovative and scalable. It’s no wonder that entrepreneurs are spawning out of its corps, and we are seeing that right here in Memphis in terms of advancing education.